Sub-3:30 Marathon in 2012 Goal Thread (Read 4589 times)

northernman

Fight The Future

posted: 8/30/2012 at 11:22 AM

I'll be running a Half this weekend to help guide my pace for the full on October 7. Not sure how useful that sort of thing is, given the really terrible weather we've had lately. Highs almost to 100 today. What's a Minnesotan to do?

Forecast for this weekend is a high of 92, and who knows how hot it will be at the start, but I'm guessing in the 70's. Anybody else doing test races in September?

I'll be running a Half this weekend to help guide my pace for the full on October 7. Not sure how useful that sort of thing is, given the really terrible weather we've had lately. Highs almost to 100 today. What's a Minnesotan to do?

Forecast for this weekend is a high of 92, and who knows how hot it will be at the start, but I'm guessing in the 70's. Anybody else doing test races in September?

Good luck this weekend! Crazy that you all hit 100 today. Summer ends this weekend, though, so cooler temps are ahead of us, right? But, yeah, it's hard to figure out how to interpret paces in this heat. It'll be a good dress rehearsal, though, I'm sure. Do you have another tune up race ahead or is this it? With a little more than a month, I'm guessing this might be it.

I'm running a half next weekend. It'll be a redemption race for me since I had a poor performance at it last year.

I'll be running a Half this weekend to help guide my pace for the full on October 7. Not sure how useful that sort of thing is, given the really terrible weather we've had lately. Highs almost to 100 today. What's a Minnesotan to do?

Forecast for this weekend is a high of 92, and who knows how hot it will be at the start, but I'm guessing in the 70's. Anybody else doing test races in September?

I'm running a 25K on 9/9 (City of Lakes). I'm pretty much the poster child for how not to train for a sub-3:30 race this cycle. Haven't even come close to hitting the mileage I want (work/life/family extra busy), running with a nagging hip ache, not hitting most of my key workouts, only doing one tune-up race, etc. I did a track workout in that crazy near-100 heat on Wednesday and my legs are still screaming at me, but I'll still try to get in an "easy" 22 mile run tomorrow. I'm pretty sure the upcoming 25K is going to be awful. Going to wait to see what the weather brings, but not sure if I'm going to all-out race it or try to run it at goal marthon pace to see how that pace feels for 15.5 miles. I haven't done any goal pace running and my tempo runs have been very hit or miss- nailing them on the treadmill but failing miserably on the road in the heat. Starting to think TCM might be more of a fun sight-seeing run (I do love that course and the crowds) rather than a PR attempt.

Good luck at the half this weekend northernman. This morning seemed a bit cooler than yesterday- hopefully that trend will continue through the weekend.

northernman

Fight The Future

posted: 8/31/2012 at 11:09 AM

Julia- this will be my only tune up race. I had a 10K on the schedule a few weeks ago, but with the heat I couldn't see wasting $25 to go melt down with a bunch of other people, so I chickened out and ran inside on the track. Not much help there. The good thing is I almost never run half marathons, so my PR pace for the full is faster than my half marathon record pace. I bet I get either a PR or a DNF tomorrow.

Jen- City of Lakes race sounds great! I wish I'd planned for that instead of this half, but too late for me to change now. I think TCM will be fun, whether you race it or just go for the music and crowds.

Thanks, Jen. It turned out to be a very nice, small town race. Extremely well organized, and water stops every mile. The fire fighters even had a truck spraying runners at mile 10. A warm day, with direct sun, so the water was appreciated. I won my age group (50-59) and also came in ahead of the whippersnappers in the 40-49 age group. Not exactly a large field, though, so not all that impressive. Now if I can just lose about 5 pounds before the TCM, I think I can PR it in October.

The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff

unsolicited chatter

"I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."

-- Dick LeBeau

Julia1971

posted: 9/9/2012 at 12:42 PM

I ran my first tune up race today! It's a bit early - NYCM is still 8 weeks out - but, I wanted to run this race for redemption. I ran it pretty poorly last year due to a layoff and that spurred me on to train harder this past winter to get back to where I was. Long story short, I ran a 1:35:30 - about 9 minutes faster than I ran it last year. I was going for a PR and running around a 7:10 pace up until Mile 11 or so and theeeeen... not so much. I'm kind of upset with myself about that - I pride myself on my pacing and was even complimented on it after the race by someone who must have lost me before Mile 11. But, I think my legs just got heavy at the end on account of racing such a long distance in the middle of marathon training. That, or I just went out too fast.

I ran my first tune up race today! It's a bit early - NYCM is still 8 weeks out - but, I wanted to run this race for redemption. I ran it pretty poorly last year due to a layoff and that spurred me on to train harder this past winter to get back to where I was. Long story short, I ran a 1:35:30 - about 9 minutes faster than I ran it last year. I was going for a PR and running around a 7:10 pace up until Mile 11 or so and theeeeen... not so much. I'm kind of upset with myself about that - I pride myself on my pacing and was even complimented on it after the race by someone who must have lost me before Mile 11. But, I think my legs just got heavy at the end on account of racing such a long distance in the middle of marathon training. That, or I just went out too fast.

Wow! Great time Julia. On a warm day, too. I bet it was cooler last March for you, no?

Well well well. That was unexpected! Decided to run the Friends of Keji Trail Marathon as a long training run...

Set off, taking it fairly easy, but went through half in 1:39 - game on. Didn't run hard other than the last 3k with my legs still feeling great. 3:23:49. Holy dying... Where did that come from?! To be fair, I've been turning in some good results recently so not completely unexpected. The route was only bicycle measured too so was maybe a bit short, but hey! I'm claiming the result :-))

MTA: I'll come off the list for another marathon now this year. I'll plan to run the half at Valley Harvest and go for sub-90 as my remaining 2012 goal. Thanks.

Well well well. That was unexpected! Decided to run the Friends of Keji Trail Marathon as a long training run...

Set off, taking it fairly easy, but went through half in 1:39 - game on. Didn't run hard other than the last 3k with my legs still feeling great. 3:23:49. Holy dying... Where did that come from?! To be fair, I've been turning in some good results recently so not completely unexpected. The route was only bicycle measured too so was maybe a bit short, but hey! I'm claiming the result :-))

MTA: I'll come off the list for another marathon now this year. I'll plan to run the half at Valley Harvest and go for sub-90 as my remaining 2012 goal. Thanks.